Southern Charm recap: the internet uncovers Shep’s dating profile

After an, uh, eventful Friendsgiving celebration, the Southern Charm group was ready to continue on with their gatherings in season 8, episode 12.

Naomie Olindo stopped by Patricia Altschul’s home to visit her son, Whitney Sudler-Smith, who she had been having a fling with. After an awkward greeting where the two didn’t know whether to kiss or not, they sat down for some coffee and chatted. 

Whitney said that his mom was throwing her annual gentlemen’s dinner, which is notorious for causing some sort of drama even though it’s an evening with Patricia and men only. This year had a French theme, so Whitney asked Naomie, who was born in France, to co-host the dinner. “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she said. “I didn’t hear this conversation, but Leva [Bonaparte] told me that Craig [Conover] hates me.” It seemed like Whitney was disappointed, even throwing in a “**** him” about Craig.

The ladies had a girls’ dinner, which included Naomie, Leva, Kathryn Dennis, Taylor Ann Green, Venita Aspen and Olivia Flowers. Right off the bat, Leva let Kathryn know that Naomie hooked up with Whitney. Fans may recall that Kathryn and Whitney had a thing going in season 1 of Southern Charm. Kathryn didn’t find the news weird and sang Whitney’s praises, calling him “genuine” and “good guy.” Who would have thought that this would be the bridge between these two after a rocky history? Naomie apologized to Kathryn for hurting her in regards to talking with her boyfriend (at the time), Chleb Ravenell, at Olivia’s party. Naomie explained how Chleb made it seem like he was the victim and Kathryn was the narcissist. The conversation went well, and maybe there’s hope for these two yet.

Continuing the evening, Leva brought up an issue she had with Venita and Madison LeCroy after the dog wedding. She told Madison, who was newly engaged, that it looked like she was not over Austen, her ex-boyfriend. According to Leva, her intent was to look out for her, but Madison got mad about it. Taylor backed Leva up, saying that she was there and Leva was looking out for her. Leva had texted Venita at the reception that she was having it out with Madison and wrote how “she is dumb.” Madison saw the message on Venita’s phone and the situation got bigger.

Venita detailed that after the reception, she and Madison got into the car to leave, and Venita handed Madison her phone to figure out the music. That’s when the text came through. Madison texted Leva from her own phone about being called dumb. “It’s weird, cause, like, I’m in the middle. Cause I like you, I also like Madison,” Venita said. Leva explained that she never had a problem with Madison until it felt like she was affecting her friendship and trust with Venita. Not only that, but that’s why she thinks Venita wasn’t invited to Friendsgiving, because Madison affected Venita’s trust within the group.

It was time for Patricia’s infamous gentlemen’s dinner, but the men certainly didn’t act like perfect gentlemen. Whitney, Craig, Shep Rose and Austen Kroll all gathered for pre-dinner drinks. As the group was waiting for dinner, Craig accidentally spilled red wine… on Patricia’s off-white sofa… which costs $45,000. “This might be the worst thing that I’ve ever done drunk, and that’s saying something,” Craig said in his confessional. He apologized to Patricia and promised to take care of it the next day. But he wasn’t done damaging Patricia’s house just yet. When they were seated for dinner, Craig broke a leg off of the chair he was sitting on. To add salt to the wound, Patricia revealed that she had just paid $25,000 for those chairs. This is one expensive evening for Craig.

Austen decided to ask Patricia how she felt about Whitney and Naomie. “She’s lovely,” she said. “But I’m not getting my hopes up.” It sounded like his mom already approves, but is weary of her son’s ability to stay in a long-term relationship.

Back at girls’ night, Taylor began discussing her relationship with Shep. Just two episodes ago, Shep blew up at Taylor in front of all of their friends. “I don’t care about being called an effing idiot, cause I know he doesn’t mean it,” Taylor told the group. None of them seemed okay with that statement, and tried to help her see it’s not acceptable to be spoken to like that. “I have the biggest heart for him, and sometimes I want to walk away and I want to be done with it. But for some reason, God has pulled on my heart to go, ‘Taylor, stick with it,’” Taylor explained.

Switching back to the gentlemen’s dinner, they were also talking about Shep and Taylor. Craig brought up how if he ever cheated on his girlfriend, Paige DeSorbo of Bravo’s Summer House and Winter House, they would be over, but Taylor will always forgive Shep. Coincidentally, Craig received a ping on his phone while seated at the table. He excused himself, as did Austen, and they talked about how Shep’s Raya dating profile had just come to light.

After dessert, Craig and Austen pulled Shep outside to let him know what was going on. “Someone has posted your Raya profile onto a gossip site on the internet,” Craig got right to the point, noting that it said the last time he downloaded the app was in Bermuda. “Taylor and I were in a bad place when I was in Bermuda,” Shep explained. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t say I was single, but I was, I was in turmoil with my girlfriend. And I said, ‘I need some time to figure out what I want.’” The couple was in a bad place, because it was right after Taylor found out about some inappropriate texts Shep had with an old flame (you might remember hearing about this at last season’s reunion). Shep said that he wasn’t going to set his profile to inactive, even though he claimed that he wasn’t currently active on it.

Southern Charm continues on Thursdays at 9 pm ET on Bravo.